What In The World Is Wrong With My Mexican Red Knee?

[Kat Berg]

I have a Mexican Red Knee, (he is my second T, my first died from a fatal fall when my mom was handling her) and I cant seem to figure out what's wrong with him! He has a few problems that I don't understand...

1. When I first got him (at about an inch big) he was SUPER sweet and would let me handle him and he would let me touch him anywhere with a feather. but one molt later he had transformed in to a psychotic ball of fire and attacked everything! Does anyone know why he's so aggressive now?

2. Ever since his molt he constantly rushes everything (and I mean everything) We fill his water dish everyday with a mister on stream and he attacks the water that's going into the bowl. I feed him every 3-4-5 days (either a few meal worms, a super worm or occasionally a horn worm) so I don't think he is hungry.

3. He has started to act strange around his food. I smash the heads on the worms that I feed him and offer them to him. Usually he does a kung-fu flying leap out of his hide and onto his food (I'm not exaggerating he likes to jump around his enclosure). But now he slowly walks over, feels each worm up and down with his feelers (never heard of this behavior before), and then walks away. He still eats them when I'm not observing but I'm really confused. He has also ran away from his food on multiple occasions and wouldn't come out of his hide until I take the food out of his enclosure.

Is this normal behavior for juvenile Ts? Am I over feeding him? Or did I manage to buy the most psychotic T in PetSmart?

 

[Toxoderidae]

Well don't handle your spider anymore. That's the first thing I'd do. He may just be frightened hence the water bowl attacking, or just being a weird tarantula.

 

[Flexzone]

It's not unheard of for T's to change temperaments from molt to molt..day-day... Or even hour-hour, Nobody truly knows why. That's why in general handling them is not encouraged as falls(skittish)/bites(defensive) can happen based on their moods. I've observed my T's do the same thing of feeling the prey and walking away, Then eating it later. I don't have an idea as to why. It's just one of those quirks some T's do.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Hello there.

First, post a pic if you can. A pic of the enclosure/set up, also.

One thing. "He would... he has started, he constantly..." etc how you are so sure of the sex, btw? Have you checked well the exuvia (one of his/her) or the LPS employee told you that? They know nothing about Theraphosidae, just for saying.

Seems that you are concerned by the handling part too much IMO. Leave him/her alone, with a full water dish (no misting/spray, use always a pipette or a syringe for refill the water dish).

About the food, it's not an "over feeding" or not question. Thing is, if the prey are always the "right" size and there's no pre-molt or other (rare) issues, there's no problems. Don't force that. Don't be in a rush for that.

You provided him/her an hide, good. Oh and btw i suggest to try also crickets sometime, not only worms.

Funny, that "kung fu" thing you mentioned reminds me of M.robustum "kicks".

As i've said, a pic if you want.

 

[BorisTheSpider]

Why are you touching your T with a feather ? A soft bristle craft brush or a large pair of hemostats ( or tongs if you prefer ) is a much better way of nudging your T around it's enclosure . Also , if your first T died from a fatal fall then why handle the second one ?

To the topic now , there is nothing with your T .

 

[Flexzone]

Funny, that "kung fu" thing you mentioned reminds me of M.robustum "kicks".

You read my mind, Just thinking the same

 

[Iska]

I think you could feed it less, but it sounds pretty typical to me!

 

[Kat Berg]

Well don't handle your spider anymore. That's the first thing I'd do. He may just be frightened hence the water bowl attacking, or just being a weird tarantula.

I only handled him once to move him into a bigger enclosure because I didn't want to freak him out since that stresses out Ts so I know handling isn't an issue. Plus I'm WAY too scared to put my hand anywhere near him.

 

[Kat Berg]

Why are you touching your T with a feather ? A soft bristle craft brush or a large pair of hemostats ( or tongs if you prefer ) is a much better way of nudging your T around it's enclosure . Also , if your first T died from a fatal fall then why handle the second one ?

To the topic now , there is nothing with your T .

My Conure lost a tail feather and I used all of my paint brushes for painting and I didn't want to risk killing him by paint poisoning

 

[Kat Berg]

Hello there.

First, post a pic if you can. A pic of the enclosure/set up, also.

One thing. "He would... he has started, he constantly..." etc how you are so sure of the sex, btw? Have you checked well the exuvia (one of his/her) or the LPS employee told you that? They know nothing about Theraphosidae, just for saying.

Seems that you are concerned by the handling part too much IMO. Leave him/her alone, with a full water dish (no misting/spray, use always a pipette or a syringe for refill the water dish).

About the food, it's not an "over feeding" or not question. Thing is, if the prey are always the "right" size and there's no pre-molt or other (rare) issues, there's no problems. Don't force that. Don't be in a rush for that.

You provided him/her an hide, good. Oh and btw i suggest to try also crickets sometime, not only worms.

Funny, that "kung fu" thing you mentioned reminds me of M.robustum "kicks".

As i've said, a pic if you want.

I tried crickets but they freaked him out... And yes I compared an old molt to picture on the internet and it looked similar to the male molt. Boo (I nicknamed him Boo Radley) is a little too small to tell 100% though so I'm assuming its a Male until it's old enough for a 100% answer

 

[Venom1080]

T sounds completely fine and is acting normal. a T will sometimes become more defensive as they grow due to the fact that they can actually defend themselves now, they are simply larger and things that were big before arent so big anymore. so the T dosent have to run anymore but can defend itself. happens to alot of my NW spiders. one molt, all nice and tolerant, next molt, BAM! hello satan! i feed my juvis aprox once per week. too much and then they dont eat for awhile, IMO youre feeding a bit too much. once a week is plenty. lastly, may i ask you not to buy Ts from petsmart and pet co? they are terrible with exotics, especially inverts. buying Ts from them is only supporting a bad cause.

 

[Kat Berg]

T sounds completely fine and is acting normal. a T will sometimes become more defensive as they grow due to the fact that they can actually defend themselves now, they are simply larger and things that were big before arent so big anymore. so the T dosent have to run anymore but can defend itself. happens to alot of my NW spiders. one molt, all nice and tolerant, next molt, BAM! hello satan! i feed my juvis aprox once per week. too much and then they dont eat for awhile, IMO youre feeding a bit too much. once a week is plenty. lastly, may i ask you not to buy Ts from petsmart and pet co? they are terrible with exotics, especially inverts. buying Ts from them is only supporting a bad cause.

Thank You for the insight! And I wont buy from them anymore . It was more of a last result because I wasn't willing to order off line and at the time I was in Delaware and that is as exotic as it gets where I use to live. I have since moved and I now buy my Ts and their food from my local reptile shop if that makes you feel any better !

 

[Solsurfer]

Sounds like real character. My l parahybana is like that when approaching premolt . wait until you get hairs kicked on your arm and forget to wash them off lol

 

[Solsurfer]

Don't get your face near the urticating hairs though. In case you didn't know . although I'm sure you do.

 

[Lander9021]

As said pretty normal but I do strongly advise you don't handle your theraphosidae @Chris LXXIX
Beeing as you have already lost one due to handling, I thought we learn from mistakes lol.

 

[mistertim]

If your T doesn't seem to like being handled then don't handle it. Its a bad idea in general (as you know from a fatal fall before). Just let it do its thing, they are quite amazing without being held.

 

[Andromalius]

My B. vagans acted out entirely like this, made me resort to slowly trickling water to his water bowl, since taking it out and putting it in makes it attack the bowl, scared it might miss and hit my forcep/tong or whatnot. But its change in temperament coincided with a current heat wave that hit our part of the country, but I dunno, just tarantula things I guess.

And don't worry about names, honestly, I name my Ts after their sps. So I call mine Vagans and my P baeri's; Baeri 1 - 14

 

[viper69]

Also , if your first T died from a fatal fall then why handle the second one ?

Because as I read on a sign once, "Common Sense Ain't Common"

Some people DO NOT learn the easy way, and their pets suffer for it.

 

[viper69]

I now buy my Ts and their food from my local reptile shop if that makes you feel any better

I've always done the same, but over time I've learned most of the employees are not the brightest bulbs. Also, there are 2 types of owners, those that don't bother to learn too much about their pet, hence they believe the pet store people and care sheets "know all", and those that take a more serious look at their pets' husbandry and realize many people at the stores don't know a thing more or less.

Ts behavior can change from molt to molt. There's no research on this and there never will be. We just know it happens.

It sounds as if your T isn't hungry, but can't say for sure as it's not mine. I'd also try some crickets.

What size is your T? I may have missed that info. Some Ts will feel up their food, investigate even if not hungry, or hungry and come back later for it. Happens all the time with some of mine, usually when they are plump.

A pic of its container and the T MAY help.

Petsmart = PetDumb in my experience.

 

[Kat Berg]

If your T doesn't seem to like being handled then don't handle it. Its a bad idea in general (as you know from a fatal fall before). Just let it do its thing, they are quite amazing without being held.

Yeah I don't handle him. I've only done that once because I had to move him to a different enclosure and he was docile when I moved him.